We Breathe Water, You Breathe Lies

Page 4

      Amid the chaos on the deck, one of the pirates dragged a woman forward, gripping her by the arm as he shoved her toward the edge of the boat. She stumbled, barely catching herself, her red curls spilling over her shoulders like flames in the moonlight. Even from where she lingered beneath the water, Elara could see the pale freckles dotting her skin, a striking contrast to the darkness around her.

The woman's breath came in shallow gasps, but there was something unsettlingly steady in the way she held herself. Her green eyes flashed with something more than fear — defiance, perhaps, or something far more dangerous.

The pirate yanked her closer, his grip tightening on her arm as he pressed a gun to her side. "Where is it?" he snarled. His voice was low, rough, barely audible over the soft slosh of the waves and the panicked murmurs from the crowd.

The woman didn't flinch, though her body trembled ever so slightly. Elara's sharp eyes noticed the smallest hint of muscle beneath her skin, taut and smooth, as though she weren't entirely unfamiliar with danger.

"I told you," the woman breathed, her voice remarkably calm given the situation. "It's gone. I threw it overboard."

The pirate's eyes narrowed, his lips curling back in a snarl. "Liar."

"I'm not lying." Her voice held a faint trace of something... something like the pull of the ocean. But it was so subtle, so interwoven with the fear of the moment, that Elara almost missed it. The human pirate, of course, had no clue. He slammed the woman back against the railing, hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She doubled over slightly, coughing, but never lost her composure.

Elara stayed beneath the water, unseen, watching this strange exchange with a growing sense of curiosity. There was something odd about the woman. She didn't move like the other humans on board, didn't scream or beg the way they did. Her skin glistened in the moonlight, not from sweat but from something deeper, something familiar.

But Elara couldn't quite place it.

Her attention snapped back to the pirate, who leaned in close to the woman, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Do you really think you can lie to me? We know what you're hiding. And if you threw it overboard, we'll find it. But you won't live to see it."

The woman's jaw clenched, and for a brief moment, her eyes flicked toward the water. Just the smallest glance, the briefest shift — so fast it would've been invisible to anyone else.

But not to Elara.

There it is. Something in her recognized that glance, that fleeting connection with the ocean. But she couldn't be sure.

The woman turned back to the pirate, her voice hard and final. "It's already lost to you. You won't get it back."

Elara's eyes narrowed, the pieces slowly, quietly clicking into place.

She's not just running from them.

She's hiding something, something far more valuable than these clueless pirates could ever imagine.